MySQL and IBM launched a public beta in the past week for the DB2 for i Storage Engine for MySQL (IBMDB2I), data storage technology IBM says will be a boost for System i shops.
The storage engine has been developed for MySQL running in IBM i, V5R4 and V6R1. IBMDB2I allows users to create MySQL tables with a DB2 format type, and is included in MySQL for i installation by default, though users have to enable it. The product allows customers to run MySQL-based PHP applications and have the data stored in DB2/400.
“Really what happens is that customers run one of these open source applications written to PHP or some other language, that application is written to MySQL…then through the MySQL storage engine architecture that data gets written to DB2,” said Craig Johnson, IBM Power Systems Product Manager. “So from the i customers standpoint, all of them have DB2 already; they all know how to use it (and) manage it, and so their PHP applications written to MySQL end up getting stored in the same database they already have.”
The data that is stored in the engine is not just available to the MySQL application, but also to other applications on the IBM i platform.
IBMDB2I works with MySQL 5.1. Officials at IBM could not offer a date as to when the product would be generally available.